Efficient Parking Strategies
What are efficient parking strategies?
Efficient parking strategies involve making changes to outdated local development ordinances and policies. Changes include requiring "maximum" rather than "minimum" parking requirements, encouraging or requiring shared parking, and providing pervious pavement options rather than standard impervious pavement requirements. "Maximum" parking requirements refer to the setting of a "cap" on the number of off-street parking spaces that may be provided on site.
"Minimum" parking requirements, which have been in place in many zoning regulations since the mid-20th Century, set the minimum number of off-street parking spaces that a land use must have to gain development approval. Many of the standards used for determining the minimum number of required spaces are based on outdated methods, and have been copied from ordinance to ordinance. These minimum requirements often require more parking than may be needed for the specific use.
What is the Impact?
- Possible resistance from development community.
- Perceived notion that maximum rather than minimum requirements will create parking problems.
- Additional maintenance issues related to use of pervious pavements.
- Pervious pavements are not allowed for use in protected water supply watersheds in North Carolina under State law.
What are the Benefits?
Economic
- Reduces the amount of land required for parking and frees land for more profitable uses, thereby enhancing economic development.
- Less pavement helps reduce the cost of development.
Environmental
- Reduces impervious surfaces, particularly heat absorbing surfaces which in turn decreases urban heat islands, thus slowing the production of ozone and reducing energy cooling costs.
- Reduces storm water runoff and peak flow rates, thereby reducing surface pollution going into streams and rivers.
- Encourages use of alternative forms of transportation other than single-occupancy vehicles, thereby reducing emissions through reduced vehicle miles traveled.
Social
Less impervious surfaces and more landscaping enhances visual and environmental character of the area.
Tracking Progress
Cumberland County allows pervious pavements to be used in shopping center projects where the building (or a building involved) is over 20,000 square feet in area. In such cases, 25% of the required parking area must be surfaced with pervious paving materials and maintained to prevent storm water runoff.
How to Implement
Public
Support ordinance amendments requiring "maximum" rather than "minimum" parking requirements, provision for shared parking, and use of pervious paving in areas outside of protected water supply watersheds.
Elected Officials
Adopt and/or amend local development regulations to encourage or require "maximum" rather than "minimum" parking requirements, shared parking, and use of pervious paving in areas outside of protected watersheds.
Sources of Assistance and Ideas
Links
- Georgia Quality Growth Partnerships
- A Guide to Taming the Downtown Parking Beast - Parking Management Made Easy:
- National Transportation Library: Managing Employee Parking in a Changing Market
- Pavement Busters Guide - Why and How to Reduce the Amount of Land Paved for Roads and Parking Facilities - Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Land Use and Parking Management
- Smart Growth Online
Localities that have adopted plans or ordinances:
Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, and Moore Counties all have provisions for shared parking facilities in their land development regulations.